Creating and viewing lab resources
You can populate the lab management database with
lab resource information in several ways. You can import existing lab resource
data and create new lab resource data in the lab management tool. You can
create groups of lab resources and assign them to teams of testers. You can
search for lab resources with specific attributes, for example, specific operating
systems and software.
- Roles in test lab management
Lab management tasks are often performed by people in the roles
of lab manager and tester. This topic describes work activities that are associated
with these roles and the features in the lab management tool that they use.
- Creating files to import multiple lab resource definitions
You can import lab resource data into to the lab management
tool by creating a list of resource definitions in XML format.
- Importing lab resource lists
You can import a list of lab resources from an XML file.
- Creating new test environments
You can create a test environment for lab resources,
which can be stored and reused in many lab management tasks, for example,
lab resource requests, searching for lab resources, and creating future test
environments. A test environment is a set of lab resource attributes, for
example, the make, memory, operating system, and software for a particular
type of machine.
- Viewing test environments
You can view all the test environments that are available
to be used in lab management activities such as creating resources, searching
for resources, and requesting and reserving lab resources.
- Creating lab resource data for physical machines
You can create lab resource data for physical machines
to track in the lab management tool.
- Creating virtual images
You can create data for virtual images to track in the
lab management tool. A virtual image is a .vmx file that consists
of software to be used as a basis for applications under test. For
example, you could set up a base image .vmx file consisting of a Windows® XP, SP2 operating system
and security software for the English language. You would then assign
it a name (for example, WinXP-SP2-eng.vmx) and save it. When you deploy
the image onto a physical machine and rename the image, it becomes
a virtual machine. You could then load an application for testing
onto the virtual machine. Virtual images can easily be reused, which
can save time setting up additional testing environments.
- Virtual Collections
Virtual collections are logical groupings of either virtual
images or virtual machines. Virtual collections represent an application
topology, for example, one virtual image for a Web server, another
virtual image for a database server that are used together. A virtual
collection can have a test environment associated with it that describes
the application topology that it represents. The function that this topic describes might
not be available, depending on how lab management permissions and
client access licenses have been defined for your user account. You must be integrated with an external
provider, such as VMLogix or Surgient or another tool that manages
virtual images and machines, to view or use virtual collections. For
information about setting up the integration of the external provider
application and IBM® Rational® Quality
Manager,
see the product documentation for the external provider application.
- Working with virtualization product integrations
The function that this topic describes might
not be available, depending on how lab management permissions and
client access licenses have been defined for your user account. If you are integrated with an external
provider that manages virtual images and machines, you can view, deploy,
and assign test environments to virtual collections in IBM Rational Quality
Manager. A virtual collection is a logical grouping
of either virtual images or virtual machines that represent application
topologies.
- Creating lab resource groups
You can create a group of lab resources to track and manage. You
can associate teams of people to a lab resource group. For example, you can
create a group of machines that are dedicated to a particular testing team.
The team of people always has exclusive access to the group of lab resources
that you define.
- Viewing lab resource groups
You can view all lab resource groups by team area.
You can sort the view by lab resource group name, description, starting date,
expiration date, and team area.
- Searching for lab resources
You can search for lab resources such as physical machines and
virtual images using predefined search criteria.
- Deleting and hiding lab resources
The function that this topic describes might
not be available, depending on how lab management permissions and
client access licenses have been defined for your user account. If you have administration privileges, you
can delete lab resources from several views. You can also choose to hide lab
resources from views without deleting them. When lab resources are deleted,
a record of them remains in the database with a history of actions performed
on them. Use the All Deleted and Hidden Lab Resources view to see lab resources
that have been either hidden or deleted in other lab management views. You
can also restore lab resources that are displayed in this view.
- Updating lab resource data
The function that this topic describes might
not be available, depending on how lab management permissions and
client access licenses have been defined for your user account. You must be integrated with external
provider applications that have inventory capability (for example, IBM Rational Build Forge® or IBM Tivoli® products
such as Tivoli Application
Dependency Discovery Manager and Tivoli Provisioning
Manager), you can update lab resource data to display the latest lab
resource configurations and new lab resources that have been added.
- Running scripts on remote lab resources
The function that this topic describes might
not be available, depending on how lab management permissions and
client access licenses have been defined for your user account. You must be integrated with external
provider applications that have automation capability (for example, IBM Rational Build Forge or IBM Tivoli products
such as Tivoli Provisioning
Manager), to run scripts, projects, or libraries that are configured
in the external provider applications on remote lab resources that
are available in the external systems.